Charlie's artwork explosion

Charlie has always been a "creative" kid but in the last two days, his artwork has taken on a life of its own! Fist, he wrote his name for the first time. I know...every kid does this, but it was his first time and I was sooo proud! He suddenly went from writing one or two letters, to writing several and recognizing them. SO his name writing was really awesome!
Above is a bird. I also thought this was something special...mostly because it actually looks like a bird, and it's what he meant to draw!


And lastly, this is a picture of him bouncing a ball. That's what it looks like! If you look closely, there's even grass that the boy is standing on! He also drew the sky in a picture a few days ago. I am fascinated by this and can't wait to see what his next steps in artwork are like!

Vegas Baby

SO last week, I left my kiddos (left Aaron for the first time) and flew to Vegas. There was a nursing conference there and we have great friends who live out there and have a 7 week old baby. It was the perfect excuse to get away!
So, I flew out on wednesday and Alex met me out there on Friday and we returned on Monday. We had a great time and I got to spend lots of time with Zev Joseph Schwartz (above) so I got my baby fix in. They have an amazing house, the weather was perfect and I got 4 runs in!

Zev making a silly face...

Aunt Sara loving her some Zev time!

Darren with Zev (that's Zev's daddy) and Alex

Having some yummy wine with Jen

Jen getting punchy

We went out to a yummy dinner at Sensi in the Bellagio...Darren was nice enough to read the menu to Alex

Inside the Bellagio...Darren highjacked my camera

The gardens inside the Bellagio

Honey I shrunk the kids anyone?!

Pretty snail

Little Zev looking angelic

This is their awesome dog Tyson...he is seriously the coolest dog EVER!

Zev's kissy lips

So we had a great time. I ran four days in a row (with Tyson) at 4.1 miles each time...so I ran 16.4 miles while away on vaca...the trail was beautiful and the weather was perfect! Jen and Darren were amazing hosts and we wish we could live closer!

Brotherly fun

Fun at Bounce U

We had two birthday parties at Bounce U this weekend and what a great weekend it was to play inside...we had a Nor'easter blow in and aside from flooding and closed roads and detours, it was lots of fun once we got there, both days!
These are pics from our second day there...he had a blast because it was just me and him...no baby Aaron, so I got to participate on the inflatables!

Fun times!

Aaron's antics

Aaron is doing very well these days. He's over his viral pneumonia/bronchiolitis and has just a minimal cough left.

He finds both dogs extremely fascinating and Abby finds him equally fascinating so they hang out together alot.
We're teaching him the word gentle but he's either terribly stubborn or a slow learner...

His, "what, I'm innocent" look...used to fool me but not anymore!

Trying to figure a way to break her out of the cage...she's not housebroken yet so we cage her and let her out when she does a good job!

His new and most favorite mode of transportation!

Aaron went for his one year checkup and did very well. He was still sick but looked good otherwise. He had lost some weight with all the sickness but still weighed in at 22lb 9oz. Charlie was 25lbs at his one year. Crazy! Otherwise, nothing to report. We're staying on his reflux meds, he's on whole milk now and he only drinks from a straw sippy cup! No more bottles!!!!!!!! I'm actually a bit sad because since he's my last, I'll never have bottles again!Crazy to think about!

More adorableness from Abby the dog

Incidentally, this past week's running went ok...I had to run inside 3 out of the 4 days because of crappy weather. I HATE the treadmill but managed alright. In total, I only ran 13.4 total miles in 4 runs. But I had two 4+ mile run in there which is good. This week, I'll be in Vegas for a nursing conference so my goals are simply to run while out there...I have no idea what kind of time I'll have so I don't want to put too much on myself!

Our newest addition

I have more pics but here's a few of our newest addition Abby. She's a rescue shi-tzu who's not house trained but super cute and has a ton of energy. She's anywhere from 6-10 years old according to the vet...that's 42-70 in dog years!

Week two marathon training recap

So week two. It was not what I planned. It was Aaron's birthday week but we're not having his party till April so I figured it wouldn't really get in the way. It didn't but the bronchiolitis/pneumonia and a few doctor's trips did! So, thanks to Alex who helped push me a bit to run a little rather than give up the whole day of running (run 2 miles rather than 4 if time gets away from me and it's the end of the day...) I ran a few short runs on the treadmill (I hate running on the treadmill and have no attention span for it). Not my favorite thing but at least I ran. And since I really had limited time on those days to run, I focused on speed rather than distance. So I had three days where I ran 2 miles in less than 20 minutes. I ran hard but it really was kind of a fun change of pace (literally!) for me. I did get my long run in, I ran 5.2 miles on a beautiful day and had a great time doing it. My hips were really sore afterward but I felt fine after 24 hours. I used an app on my iPhone called run keeper and was able to see my distance, my time, and my average pace. I actually run faster outside than I expected! I also walked to and from work twice this weekend which is a total of 5.2 miles...so my total for this week is:

Week 1: 13.4 miles running, 4 running days

Week 2: 11.2 miles running, 5.2 miles walking, 4 running days

Next weeks' goals:

5 running days, long run of 5 miles

The genius of Charlie

Charlie: "look mommy, I made a horse"

Me: "that's nice Charlie"

Charlie: "No mommy look at my horse, I really made a horse"

Me: "wow, that's cool"

Charlie: "mommy, please look at my horse"

...clearly I wasn't actually looking at the horse...I was feeding a difficult to feed Aaron his breakfast and was not feeling like playing a game with Charlie's food...but I looked upon his insistence and this is what I saw...

Pretty impressive if you ask me! He's got quite an eye for the abstract and for engineering/artistic things...we'll see where he takes this in his life!

Aaron's birthday fun!?

So the day before Aaron's actual birthday, he was at the docs with some wheezing and a cough. Diagnosed as bronchiolitis, started him on albuterol. He was somewhat miserable but still happy to be pushed around in his wagon by Charlie (above picture)...fast forward 12 hours to his birthday morning...
Still happy, mostly, but the day got worse and worse. He was so unhappy, I felt so bad for him! When Charlie got home from school (before his swim lessons) we gave Aaron the two gifts we bought for him and he screamed through pretty much the whole thing!

The big crocodile tears are the worst...man he springs those puppys out at a moments notice!

We tried the cupcake and he wasn't screaming but he was certainly not happy!

Pseudo smile!

His first taste of frosting...

Poor guy! We are celebrating his birthday with a party closer to when he was due (mid-April) so we can have a spring party outside and because both of my kids seem to be sick around their real birthdays...too funny! Well we were back at the docs today with worsening of his breathing and fever and general crappy looking...he has a small pneumonia in his left lung but of course this is all viral so antibiotics will not fix this...only time. We started him on inhaled steroids with the plan to move to oral steroids if he gets worse...ugh! I thought this kids would escape the inhaler routine...at least he's starting it at 1 instead of 5 months like Charlie! Anyway, he's a trooper and we tried to make his birthday fun, he was just feeling a bit under the weather!